A/N: Tissues may be needed! All of the secrets are going to start being
revealed. Including the big Maisie mystery!
"I have to tell you both something and it's going to be difficult but I need you to let me get it all out before you say anything." A slow breath came before he started the story. He was sitting in the bedroom of his childhood. Claire and Isabelle each sat on one side of the bed, their eyes wide with anticipation. Sydney and Weiss sat away from him a little bit, exchanging nervous glances now and then. Isabelle sat close to Vaughn, her hand clasped tightly in his and Maisie sitting on her lap, in the most exhausted way. Her porcelain like complexion was rosy as she tilted her head against her mother's jaw line. She started to play with Isabelle's fingertips, giggling every now and then as Isabelle let her hands drop onto her daughter's lap.
Vaughn was sitting on his bed, propped up by pillows and an oxygen tank resting nearby. His eyes were the clearest they had been in weeks. This was good for him. He needed to reveal all of his secrets to the women that mattered most in his life. Weiss, Weiss already knew all of these secrets and hell, he was in most of the secrets. He conspired in most of the secrets! But pausing to put all of the heaviness of his heart aside, he continued. "About a year ago, I was having trouble breathing. After I need any type of exercise or was put under high stress, I couldn't catch my breath. So logically, I went to the doctor. He did a normal physical and then did an x-ray of my lungs." He swallowed hard as the memories came surging back. "They found a large mass in my left lung."
Isabelle instantly gasped and tears sprung to Claire's eyes. Their hands were instantly locked into each other and their heartbeats, the three Vaughn children's heartbeats, all started to beat as one.
This was no longer painful. This was energizing for him to talk about this. He needed to get this off his chest for so many months now and all he could do was push forward to continue to talk about it. "They ran some more tests and they concluded that it was in fact cancerous." The worry lines were now deep set in his forehead. "I-I had start with radiation treatments but those-those didn't work. The mass didn't shrink in size at all and they tried to avoid surgery but that didn't work. So finally, I had to quit my job at the LA agency office and move out to New York to undergo the surgery and a more intense round of treatments."
"You don't work for the state department anymore?" Claire yelped in absolutely horror. If he had quit the agency, then she didn't know what. Then all of her accusations towards him were almost false and....Her hands pulled back from the triad in absolute fear.
He looked at her with eyes that only a sister could read; 'Shut up!!!' He cleared his throat and continued, "I still work for the agency, Claire but now I'm in the New York office. But anyway, I had the surgery about ten months ago and they didn't get it all. I started intense chemotherapy and that didn't work and now....now I'm back in LA for one last try. I just had a treatment a few days ago so! The shortness of breath-that comes and goes." Vaughn nodded his head at the last bullet point and managed to smile. "I'm okay though. I'm feeling good."
Sydney shifted her weight uncomfortably. This was the first time she had ever heard the story all the way through. But strangely, she felt as though she heard the story a thousand times before. Her eyes drifted towards Weiss's, who refused to look at anyone. His eyes were locked on the bed skirt and his face was blank.
Isabelle was now in tears. She reached over her almost sleeping daughter and embraced Vaughn tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. "I'm not going to lose you." She managed to choke out, wishing the tears would soon stop. "You're not going to die on me."
More of the salty liquid sprung to Vaughn's eyes, "I'm not going anywhere, Izzy." He whispered back softly. He attempted to calm her in anyway possible but he consciously knew that nothing he could say would make this pain go away. And this newfound guilt he was feeling made his life that much more difficult. He was doing this it her. He was causing her this pain and making her cry. And it hurt him so much. He tried to comfort her, sinking his head into her shoulder as she sobbed into his chest. It was a beautiful but horrible picture. A physically dying brother and an emotionally dying sister embraced so tightly with their vivacious sister, and his vibrant love and droll best friend looking on.
A little voice disrupted the picture, "Maman! Maman, you're crushing me! Mommy!" Maisie squealed from the depths of her. She tried to worm her way out of the tight embrace that she was caught in between. "Oncle! Oncle!"
Vaughn realized this first and pulled back slightly, gazing down at the beloved little girl. He leaned forward and planted a small kiss on the top of her forehead. "I'm sorry, Miss Maisie." A tearful smile began to play on his lips as he let go of his sister and hugged the girl tightly. "Are you okay?"
The little girl, his rock, giggled at this and buried her head into his shoulder. "What's going on?"
A strong look was shot from Vaughn to Isabelle and neither knew how to react to this very blunt question from the purest form of life.
"Come along, Maisie. We have to get ready for company." Claire was the first one to stir from the deafening silence that followed the story. Her voice started out soft and shaking, as though she was going into shock. Her body was shaking and felt a sympathy pain reach through her chest and pull her heart from her body. She loved him so much that it honestly hurt. "We-we need to be leaving soon. For-for-for the-um wake." She stammered and rose to her feet suddenly. "I'll take Maisie and finish getting things ready." She reached through Vaughn and Isabelle and took very much awake child in her arms, despite protests from her.
The silence took over again as Claire adjusted the weight on the child in her arms and bolted from the door. "We'll go sit in the bedroom and play with the dolls okay? The ones that Grandmother gave you? Does that sound good?" She cooed softly into Maisie's hair as she left the room. Her heeled footsteps were heard racing down the hallway, opening the door, pausing, closing the door and rushing partially down another hallway. Finally, after about a minute, a sudden thud was heard.
They all heard the noise but only Sydney and Weiss rose from their positions, "Stay!" Sydney exclaimed as she saw Vaughn start to stir. She glanced back only once as she saw Vaughn settled back down and try again to console his sister. Sydney bolted from the room to find what had happened. Panic and unknowing spirits took over as she ran out the door to find Claire, huddled in the corner outside Maisie's room, crying. She instantly crouched down towards the fallen Vaughn sister, Weiss looking on. "Claire?"
The sobs overtook her body as she began to rock back and forth. Her speech was undecipherable for a long time. As Sydney walked slowly towards her, she could clearly make out certain phrases that Claire was softly utterly. "He can't die. He just can't. I refuse to lose one more person in my life. First Daddy, then Samuel, then Maman, and then Michael? I can't do it. I just can't do it." She sobbed endlessly as she tried to calm herself in any ways possible. She felt as though her insides were pulling against her. This was the worst pain and she had felt it way too many times in the last couple of months. Those tears. Those seemingly endless tears coursed down her face outlining newly formed wrinkles.
Sydney crept towards her, collapsing down to her knees. She reached out towards her and finally found herself sitting next to a woman that she had so much in common with but she knew so little about. After ten seconds, Claire was wrapped in her arms and sobbing. "He's not dying. Not today, at least. I won't let him leave me. Leave us." Her brown eyes looked up helpless to see Weiss standing there and watching.
His countenance looked uncomfortable as he watched this tender scene. "I'll go check in on the little girl." His big brown eyes looked lovingly back at the awkward event that could have taken place. But Sydney knew how to handle these situations. Not only was she trained in situations, similar to this but she had first hand experience at this. She was all too familiar with the lost of a loved one.
"Maisie." Sydney mouthed in response, still trying to calm the youngest Vaughn sister.
Weiss nodded affirmatively to this and approached the small little chamber to find Maisie sitting on her floor playing with a Barbie doll. The room smelled of fresh lavender and was painted a crisp white color with hand panted purple accents. Old teddy bears and dolls from an easier time were propped up in an old rocking chair near the long oak colored dresser with tall mirror. This was Isabelle's childhood room. And beautifully decorated. "Hi. You're Maisie, right?" He quickly and inwardly cringed. If this little girl was anything like her uncle, she would already have an FBI check on him.
The beautiful green eyes glanced up from the blonde doll and up at Weiss with an absolute puppy dog look, "What's cancer?" She asked very simply. Her eyes returned to her Barbie doll as she made the doll march across the floor, to a simple little melody she made up as she went along. This little child seemed not have an absolute care in the world. Her biggest problem was that Barbie couldn't stay up late enough to go to the ball with Ken or if her pink Prada pumps didn't match the clothes she was wearing.
Weiss cleared his throat uncomfortably and shut the door tightly, not wanting anyone to hear this delicate conversation that he was absolutely sure that he was going to botch in some way, shape, or form. "You heard your Uncle Mike and mom talking about it and now you want to know what it is?"
She looked up again and her facial expression surely read "Duh." But being classy at the age of four, almost five, she simply replied, "What's cancer, Uncle Eric?" Without waiting for a reply, she looked back towards her doll, dressed head to toe in black and continued to prance her up and down the hardwood floors.
After a long moment of trying to catch her breath, she could finally could look at Vaughn, "So, are you dying?" Isabelle had let her head fall on his shoulder as she tried to calm her breath. She had shed too many tears in the last few days.
He looked down at her and smiled slightly at his anticipated response, "Not today, I'm not."
She was absolutely not satisfied with this answer and curled into herself more. "You can't die." She let silence creep into the small space they shared. There was this type of bond that could only be explained through an older sister and a younger brother. She started to talk again, with a more sober tone. "How long did they give you
He shifted to get more comfortable and started to stroke her hair softly, trying to soothe her in any means possible. "If this treatment works, twenty months to twenty four months."
"Two years?" She managed to whisper. The tears started to choke her voice again as she tried to ask the next question, "And if it doesn't?"
He sighed heavily and folded his hands over her shoulder, studying them intently, "Inside a year." He inhaled deeply and watched his sister raise from this deep breathing.
Isabelle jumped up with the little energy she had retained inside herself. Her eyes were wide with absolute outrage. The fact was that these answers were not what she wanted at all. She expected to see a completely and totally healthy little brother. And now she felt like her entire world was being shaken. "Inside a year? You won't be able to see your own daughter grow up!" She instantly fought temptation for her to clap her hands over her mouth. She definitely should not have just said what she just said aloud.
His eyes shot up and glared at her. He wished with all of his heart that she didn't just say that. His tone was harsh and cold as he conversed intently in French. "Shut up, Isabelle. She's your daughter, Izzy. You've raised her as your own and as far as she knows, she was adopted. And she was. I'm just her uncle. We're not going to go there!"
Isabelle matched his tone in her native tongue, "But she's *your* child, Michael. You and Jeanette-"
"Leave Jeanie out of this!!" He dropped his voice low and raspy. He felt his heart start to beat loudly in his chest. "True, Maisie be my child but I am more certainly not a father to that girl. I wish I could be but I can't. Jeanie and I both agreed that this would be the most suitable course of action. It would keep our lives safe, it would keep Maisie safe, and most of all, give you the daughter that you wanted. This worked out best for everyone."
"You keep enough secrets in your life. Why is that you need to keep one more from the woman you supposedly love so much? You need to tell Sydney about Maisie." She dropped her tone to match her brother's.
Vaughn pulled back and wanted to leave the bed so badly. This wasn't the conversation he wanted to have a few hours before his mother's wake. "How did we go from talking about my cancer to telling Sydney about your daughter?"
"It's gonna be okay, Claire. I know it doesn't seem like it but it will. He's not dying. I won't let him." Sydney tried to comfort Claire the best way she knew how-lying. It was amazing how similar the two women were. They were about the same age, with relatively the same build, and with enough make-up, they could look like at least sisters, if not more. The agent knew not how to react this news hitting herself, let alone aid another. "He's a fighter, Claire. You've known this since day one. He doesn't like to give up. He *won't* give up. I won't let him and I'm willing to bet my life that you won't."
"It's just...It's just..." Claire in turn, curled her knees up close to her chest and buried her head in her knees as she tried to search for some sort of answers to this Pandora's box. "I've lost too many men in my life. It's truly ridiculous. I mean, everyone that I've truly loved in my life, I've ended up losing. I lost my father, then my mother, then Samuel, and I've almost lost Michael. It just isn't fair. I can't do this anymore. I give up. I just can't." Sobs, endless, tireless sobs shook her body to no end.
Sydney recognized this pain. This is what losing Danny felt like. It was this horrible type of void that swarmed around her heart that refused to fill. "I know it feels like that."
Claire's eyes showed anger as she looked at Sydney. "You have no clue what this pain feels like."
"Yes, I do. I lost my mother, I lost my fiancé, and then I lost a boyfriend and I almost lost another. Trust me, I know what that pain feels like."
Suddenly, as if without warning, Claire felt like spilling the waters she had dammed up for so long. "Samuel and I were engaged."
She felt strangely puzzled by this, "Who's Samuel?"
"I met Samuel Hartfield while I was living in London for a while. We hit it off right away and then, I don't even know what happened but I started living in his flat. We tried to keep secrets from each other but somehow, I don't even know how, we couldn't. He ended up telling me about his involvement with 5-"
"5? As in MI-5? As in British intelligence?" Sydney barely realized that her mouth was moving as the words poured out of her mouth.
"Yes! No! I don't know!" Claire threw her arms up in frustration and leaned back against the wall, starring up at the ceiling. "I guess so! Then, all of a sudden, G-d, Sydney! I don't even know how all of this happened! One moment I could swear on my life that he was just a banker and then the next thing I consciously know, he's telling me about his involvement with 5 and then Emily, his-his partner, is telling me that he was killed in the line by this other agency and I don't know. I just don't know!" The sobs took over her body once more. "I just don't know anymore. I don't know." Her body started to ache with the torments of this anguish.
The little girl had placed her doll down and looked positively bored at Weiss's explanation. "So...is Oncle gonna be okay?"
Weiss shifted his weight on his haunches and looked at the little girl with the most compassion in the world. "He's gonna be okay, Maisie."
The little child rose to her feet and walked three feet to the overgrown teddy bear and looked at him with wide eyes. With only hesitating for a moment, she wrapped her arms around his thick neck, burying her head in his shoulder. "He's not gonna go away like Grandmaman, is he?" She whispered softly as Weiss took her into his arms and stood up.
"No. He's gonna be around forever." He lied flatly through his teeth, starting to rock Maisie slightly as he walked along the room. "Your Oncle is one of the strongest people I know." He adjusted the weight on the small child in his arms and started to make his way out of the door. It was time for them to rejoin the party and see how they were making out there. He felt as though they had been out of the loop for too long.
There was a brief moment of clarity in his mind. "If you were Sydney, you would want to know about Maisie, right?"
Isabelle nodded her head sincerely. "I think you owe it to yourself, to Sydney, to me, and especially to Maisie." She swallowed for a moment and continued. "You have to tell Sydney."
"I have to tell Sydney." Vaughn repeated with absolute determination.
"You have to tell Sydney what?" Sydney asked, standing near the doorframe.
A/N:
Love it? Hate it? It's going to start moving faster, don't worry!!
Wow, I was really impressed! Ten reviews for one chapter? I'm sorry that I gave some of you a heart attack and don't worry, I'm giving up on this story!
"I have to tell you both something and it's going to be difficult but I need you to let me get it all out before you say anything." A slow breath came before he started the story. He was sitting in the bedroom of his childhood. Claire and Isabelle each sat on one side of the bed, their eyes wide with anticipation. Sydney and Weiss sat away from him a little bit, exchanging nervous glances now and then. Isabelle sat close to Vaughn, her hand clasped tightly in his and Maisie sitting on her lap, in the most exhausted way. Her porcelain like complexion was rosy as she tilted her head against her mother's jaw line. She started to play with Isabelle's fingertips, giggling every now and then as Isabelle let her hands drop onto her daughter's lap.
Vaughn was sitting on his bed, propped up by pillows and an oxygen tank resting nearby. His eyes were the clearest they had been in weeks. This was good for him. He needed to reveal all of his secrets to the women that mattered most in his life. Weiss, Weiss already knew all of these secrets and hell, he was in most of the secrets. He conspired in most of the secrets! But pausing to put all of the heaviness of his heart aside, he continued. "About a year ago, I was having trouble breathing. After I need any type of exercise or was put under high stress, I couldn't catch my breath. So logically, I went to the doctor. He did a normal physical and then did an x-ray of my lungs." He swallowed hard as the memories came surging back. "They found a large mass in my left lung."
Isabelle instantly gasped and tears sprung to Claire's eyes. Their hands were instantly locked into each other and their heartbeats, the three Vaughn children's heartbeats, all started to beat as one.
This was no longer painful. This was energizing for him to talk about this. He needed to get this off his chest for so many months now and all he could do was push forward to continue to talk about it. "They ran some more tests and they concluded that it was in fact cancerous." The worry lines were now deep set in his forehead. "I-I had start with radiation treatments but those-those didn't work. The mass didn't shrink in size at all and they tried to avoid surgery but that didn't work. So finally, I had to quit my job at the LA agency office and move out to New York to undergo the surgery and a more intense round of treatments."
"You don't work for the state department anymore?" Claire yelped in absolutely horror. If he had quit the agency, then she didn't know what. Then all of her accusations towards him were almost false and....Her hands pulled back from the triad in absolute fear.
He looked at her with eyes that only a sister could read; 'Shut up!!!' He cleared his throat and continued, "I still work for the agency, Claire but now I'm in the New York office. But anyway, I had the surgery about ten months ago and they didn't get it all. I started intense chemotherapy and that didn't work and now....now I'm back in LA for one last try. I just had a treatment a few days ago so! The shortness of breath-that comes and goes." Vaughn nodded his head at the last bullet point and managed to smile. "I'm okay though. I'm feeling good."
Sydney shifted her weight uncomfortably. This was the first time she had ever heard the story all the way through. But strangely, she felt as though she heard the story a thousand times before. Her eyes drifted towards Weiss's, who refused to look at anyone. His eyes were locked on the bed skirt and his face was blank.
Isabelle was now in tears. She reached over her almost sleeping daughter and embraced Vaughn tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. "I'm not going to lose you." She managed to choke out, wishing the tears would soon stop. "You're not going to die on me."
More of the salty liquid sprung to Vaughn's eyes, "I'm not going anywhere, Izzy." He whispered back softly. He attempted to calm her in anyway possible but he consciously knew that nothing he could say would make this pain go away. And this newfound guilt he was feeling made his life that much more difficult. He was doing this it her. He was causing her this pain and making her cry. And it hurt him so much. He tried to comfort her, sinking his head into her shoulder as she sobbed into his chest. It was a beautiful but horrible picture. A physically dying brother and an emotionally dying sister embraced so tightly with their vivacious sister, and his vibrant love and droll best friend looking on.
A little voice disrupted the picture, "Maman! Maman, you're crushing me! Mommy!" Maisie squealed from the depths of her. She tried to worm her way out of the tight embrace that she was caught in between. "Oncle! Oncle!"
Vaughn realized this first and pulled back slightly, gazing down at the beloved little girl. He leaned forward and planted a small kiss on the top of her forehead. "I'm sorry, Miss Maisie." A tearful smile began to play on his lips as he let go of his sister and hugged the girl tightly. "Are you okay?"
The little girl, his rock, giggled at this and buried her head into his shoulder. "What's going on?"
A strong look was shot from Vaughn to Isabelle and neither knew how to react to this very blunt question from the purest form of life.
"Come along, Maisie. We have to get ready for company." Claire was the first one to stir from the deafening silence that followed the story. Her voice started out soft and shaking, as though she was going into shock. Her body was shaking and felt a sympathy pain reach through her chest and pull her heart from her body. She loved him so much that it honestly hurt. "We-we need to be leaving soon. For-for-for the-um wake." She stammered and rose to her feet suddenly. "I'll take Maisie and finish getting things ready." She reached through Vaughn and Isabelle and took very much awake child in her arms, despite protests from her.
The silence took over again as Claire adjusted the weight on the child in her arms and bolted from the door. "We'll go sit in the bedroom and play with the dolls okay? The ones that Grandmother gave you? Does that sound good?" She cooed softly into Maisie's hair as she left the room. Her heeled footsteps were heard racing down the hallway, opening the door, pausing, closing the door and rushing partially down another hallway. Finally, after about a minute, a sudden thud was heard.
They all heard the noise but only Sydney and Weiss rose from their positions, "Stay!" Sydney exclaimed as she saw Vaughn start to stir. She glanced back only once as she saw Vaughn settled back down and try again to console his sister. Sydney bolted from the room to find what had happened. Panic and unknowing spirits took over as she ran out the door to find Claire, huddled in the corner outside Maisie's room, crying. She instantly crouched down towards the fallen Vaughn sister, Weiss looking on. "Claire?"
The sobs overtook her body as she began to rock back and forth. Her speech was undecipherable for a long time. As Sydney walked slowly towards her, she could clearly make out certain phrases that Claire was softly utterly. "He can't die. He just can't. I refuse to lose one more person in my life. First Daddy, then Samuel, then Maman, and then Michael? I can't do it. I just can't do it." She sobbed endlessly as she tried to calm herself in any ways possible. She felt as though her insides were pulling against her. This was the worst pain and she had felt it way too many times in the last couple of months. Those tears. Those seemingly endless tears coursed down her face outlining newly formed wrinkles.
Sydney crept towards her, collapsing down to her knees. She reached out towards her and finally found herself sitting next to a woman that she had so much in common with but she knew so little about. After ten seconds, Claire was wrapped in her arms and sobbing. "He's not dying. Not today, at least. I won't let him leave me. Leave us." Her brown eyes looked up helpless to see Weiss standing there and watching.
His countenance looked uncomfortable as he watched this tender scene. "I'll go check in on the little girl." His big brown eyes looked lovingly back at the awkward event that could have taken place. But Sydney knew how to handle these situations. Not only was she trained in situations, similar to this but she had first hand experience at this. She was all too familiar with the lost of a loved one.
"Maisie." Sydney mouthed in response, still trying to calm the youngest Vaughn sister.
Weiss nodded affirmatively to this and approached the small little chamber to find Maisie sitting on her floor playing with a Barbie doll. The room smelled of fresh lavender and was painted a crisp white color with hand panted purple accents. Old teddy bears and dolls from an easier time were propped up in an old rocking chair near the long oak colored dresser with tall mirror. This was Isabelle's childhood room. And beautifully decorated. "Hi. You're Maisie, right?" He quickly and inwardly cringed. If this little girl was anything like her uncle, she would already have an FBI check on him.
The beautiful green eyes glanced up from the blonde doll and up at Weiss with an absolute puppy dog look, "What's cancer?" She asked very simply. Her eyes returned to her Barbie doll as she made the doll march across the floor, to a simple little melody she made up as she went along. This little child seemed not have an absolute care in the world. Her biggest problem was that Barbie couldn't stay up late enough to go to the ball with Ken or if her pink Prada pumps didn't match the clothes she was wearing.
Weiss cleared his throat uncomfortably and shut the door tightly, not wanting anyone to hear this delicate conversation that he was absolutely sure that he was going to botch in some way, shape, or form. "You heard your Uncle Mike and mom talking about it and now you want to know what it is?"
She looked up again and her facial expression surely read "Duh." But being classy at the age of four, almost five, she simply replied, "What's cancer, Uncle Eric?" Without waiting for a reply, she looked back towards her doll, dressed head to toe in black and continued to prance her up and down the hardwood floors.
After a long moment of trying to catch her breath, she could finally could look at Vaughn, "So, are you dying?" Isabelle had let her head fall on his shoulder as she tried to calm her breath. She had shed too many tears in the last few days.
He looked down at her and smiled slightly at his anticipated response, "Not today, I'm not."
She was absolutely not satisfied with this answer and curled into herself more. "You can't die." She let silence creep into the small space they shared. There was this type of bond that could only be explained through an older sister and a younger brother. She started to talk again, with a more sober tone. "How long did they give you
He shifted to get more comfortable and started to stroke her hair softly, trying to soothe her in any means possible. "If this treatment works, twenty months to twenty four months."
"Two years?" She managed to whisper. The tears started to choke her voice again as she tried to ask the next question, "And if it doesn't?"
He sighed heavily and folded his hands over her shoulder, studying them intently, "Inside a year." He inhaled deeply and watched his sister raise from this deep breathing.
Isabelle jumped up with the little energy she had retained inside herself. Her eyes were wide with absolute outrage. The fact was that these answers were not what she wanted at all. She expected to see a completely and totally healthy little brother. And now she felt like her entire world was being shaken. "Inside a year? You won't be able to see your own daughter grow up!" She instantly fought temptation for her to clap her hands over her mouth. She definitely should not have just said what she just said aloud.
His eyes shot up and glared at her. He wished with all of his heart that she didn't just say that. His tone was harsh and cold as he conversed intently in French. "Shut up, Isabelle. She's your daughter, Izzy. You've raised her as your own and as far as she knows, she was adopted. And she was. I'm just her uncle. We're not going to go there!"
Isabelle matched his tone in her native tongue, "But she's *your* child, Michael. You and Jeanette-"
"Leave Jeanie out of this!!" He dropped his voice low and raspy. He felt his heart start to beat loudly in his chest. "True, Maisie be my child but I am more certainly not a father to that girl. I wish I could be but I can't. Jeanie and I both agreed that this would be the most suitable course of action. It would keep our lives safe, it would keep Maisie safe, and most of all, give you the daughter that you wanted. This worked out best for everyone."
"You keep enough secrets in your life. Why is that you need to keep one more from the woman you supposedly love so much? You need to tell Sydney about Maisie." She dropped her tone to match her brother's.
Vaughn pulled back and wanted to leave the bed so badly. This wasn't the conversation he wanted to have a few hours before his mother's wake. "How did we go from talking about my cancer to telling Sydney about your daughter?"
"It's gonna be okay, Claire. I know it doesn't seem like it but it will. He's not dying. I won't let him." Sydney tried to comfort Claire the best way she knew how-lying. It was amazing how similar the two women were. They were about the same age, with relatively the same build, and with enough make-up, they could look like at least sisters, if not more. The agent knew not how to react this news hitting herself, let alone aid another. "He's a fighter, Claire. You've known this since day one. He doesn't like to give up. He *won't* give up. I won't let him and I'm willing to bet my life that you won't."
"It's just...It's just..." Claire in turn, curled her knees up close to her chest and buried her head in her knees as she tried to search for some sort of answers to this Pandora's box. "I've lost too many men in my life. It's truly ridiculous. I mean, everyone that I've truly loved in my life, I've ended up losing. I lost my father, then my mother, then Samuel, and I've almost lost Michael. It just isn't fair. I can't do this anymore. I give up. I just can't." Sobs, endless, tireless sobs shook her body to no end.
Sydney recognized this pain. This is what losing Danny felt like. It was this horrible type of void that swarmed around her heart that refused to fill. "I know it feels like that."
Claire's eyes showed anger as she looked at Sydney. "You have no clue what this pain feels like."
"Yes, I do. I lost my mother, I lost my fiancé, and then I lost a boyfriend and I almost lost another. Trust me, I know what that pain feels like."
Suddenly, as if without warning, Claire felt like spilling the waters she had dammed up for so long. "Samuel and I were engaged."
She felt strangely puzzled by this, "Who's Samuel?"
"I met Samuel Hartfield while I was living in London for a while. We hit it off right away and then, I don't even know what happened but I started living in his flat. We tried to keep secrets from each other but somehow, I don't even know how, we couldn't. He ended up telling me about his involvement with 5-"
"5? As in MI-5? As in British intelligence?" Sydney barely realized that her mouth was moving as the words poured out of her mouth.
"Yes! No! I don't know!" Claire threw her arms up in frustration and leaned back against the wall, starring up at the ceiling. "I guess so! Then, all of a sudden, G-d, Sydney! I don't even know how all of this happened! One moment I could swear on my life that he was just a banker and then the next thing I consciously know, he's telling me about his involvement with 5 and then Emily, his-his partner, is telling me that he was killed in the line by this other agency and I don't know. I just don't know!" The sobs took over her body once more. "I just don't know anymore. I don't know." Her body started to ache with the torments of this anguish.
The little girl had placed her doll down and looked positively bored at Weiss's explanation. "So...is Oncle gonna be okay?"
Weiss shifted his weight on his haunches and looked at the little girl with the most compassion in the world. "He's gonna be okay, Maisie."
The little child rose to her feet and walked three feet to the overgrown teddy bear and looked at him with wide eyes. With only hesitating for a moment, she wrapped her arms around his thick neck, burying her head in his shoulder. "He's not gonna go away like Grandmaman, is he?" She whispered softly as Weiss took her into his arms and stood up.
"No. He's gonna be around forever." He lied flatly through his teeth, starting to rock Maisie slightly as he walked along the room. "Your Oncle is one of the strongest people I know." He adjusted the weight on the small child in his arms and started to make his way out of the door. It was time for them to rejoin the party and see how they were making out there. He felt as though they had been out of the loop for too long.
There was a brief moment of clarity in his mind. "If you were Sydney, you would want to know about Maisie, right?"
Isabelle nodded her head sincerely. "I think you owe it to yourself, to Sydney, to me, and especially to Maisie." She swallowed for a moment and continued. "You have to tell Sydney."
"I have to tell Sydney." Vaughn repeated with absolute determination.
"You have to tell Sydney what?" Sydney asked, standing near the doorframe.
A/N:
Love it? Hate it? It's going to start moving faster, don't worry!!
Wow, I was really impressed! Ten reviews for one chapter? I'm sorry that I gave some of you a heart attack and don't worry, I'm giving up on this story!